Seated in the out-patient department of a Nigerian general hospital are weary faces, frail bones, infirmed organs, elderly people with dysfunctional legs supported with crutches, nursing moms cooing their cranky babies as everyone awaits their turns to see the doctor.
It’s noon already, and many of them got here at the first cockcrow, before the curtain of haze parted in the sky and the day broke out of darkness.
Yet, its uncertain when they’ll get the chance to lay the burden of their ailments at the doctor’s feet.
A man parks his car and cuts through the crowd with unhurried but purposeful steps towards the doctor’s office. He turns the doorknob gently and peeks inside the office.
The doctor looksup from writing prescription for the patient sitting in front of him and locks eyes with the man at the door.
“A sec, please”, he said and hastily signs off the prescription. He hands it to the patient in front of him with a nod of dismissal.
The man at the door walks in and sits. About 25 minutes later, he walks out, clutching his prescription, a satisfied smile sitting on his lips.
He is a pastor. On Sunday, he will stand on the altar and say a prayer, asking God to rescue Nigeria from the grip of corrupt politicians who use constituency funds to construct roads and build schools in their own hometowns as other towns in the constituency crumble in neglect; politicians who stack up money in tanks for their unborn children’s children.
The doctor’s “amen” will ring loud in the congregation.
The word that readily comes to mind in the pastor–doctor relationship is “connection” and we pardon it; in the politician-hometown-unborn–children case, the word becomes “corruption”.
Whereas the difference between the politician and the doctor is the scale and scope of their respective influences. While the former uses his influence to benefit his network at a corporate level, the latter does so at an interpersonal level.
Where then do we draw the line between connection and corruption? At what point does prioritizing “our own people” over others stop being connection and becomes corruption? Is connection in the context of preferential treatment ethical? Is it moral? Is it patriotic?
If it’s safe to consider corruption as the advanced stage of connection, then which of us is guiltless and should cast the first stone?
Which of us does not prioritize their parents and siblings and neigbours and Imams over random strangers when we are in charge? The boundary between connection and corruption is fluid, and our loyalty easily chameleons into bias without us sometimes realizing it.
Our swiftness to point out corrupt practices in the political arena, when we are not among the beneficiaries, speak to our societal hypocrisy.
The undergraduate who didn’t secure their admission through academic merit, the client who paid 5% less than the standard rate because their artisan is their neighbour – everyone is trading in corruption…Sorry, I mean connection.
The African culture of communal ties and family obligations further predispose us to favouritism when we are at the helms.
When we seek services from the people we know, we approach them with a sense of entitlement, our words and body language suggesting that they owe us preferential treatment, not because we are qualified, but because of connection.
These cultural ideals continue to drive inequality and injustice at interpersonal and political levels.
A CEO is corrupt because he trashes my upper credit certificate and hires his classmate’s son who is less qualified. Would he be corrupt if I were the friend’s son?
A politician is corrupt for stacking up money for his unborn great grandchildren. Would I judge my great grandfather corrupt if I inherited fortune from his political empire?
A government official is corrupt for awarding a contract to his brother’s construction company. Would he be corrupt if I were the brother?
Unless we can answer these questions with unblemished honesty, we must make peace with the unsettling truth that none of us is innocent.
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